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Boeing on Wednesday is set to report fourth-quarter results and answer to investors eager to hear how a midair blowout on one of the plane maker’s new 737 Max 9s could reverberate through the aviation industry in the months, if not years, ahead.
The effect of that accident and subsequent fallout won’t be felt in Wednesday’s earnings results but will likely be mentioned in Boeing’s outlook. Here’s how analysts polled by LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv, expect Boeing to have performed in the last three months of 2023:
- Adjusted loss per share: 78 cents
- Revenue: $21.1 billion
Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun, who took the helm of the aircraft giant four years ago in the wake of two deadly crashes of the Max, is again under pressure to clean up the company’s reputation with airline customers, regulators and the public, after the Jan. 5 accident in which a panel blew out on Alaska Flight 1282 as the plane climbed out of Portland, Oregon, leaving a gaping hole in the side of the plane.
Federal investigators are examining whether the door plug was improperly installed before the Max 9 plane was handed off to Alaska Airlines late last year.
The accident was the most serious in a series of apparent production flaws that have slowed down deliveries of new planes, and angered some of the company’s biggest airline customers in the process, while main rival Airbus continues to surpass Boeing in handing over new aircraft.
The Federal Aviation Administration last week cleared the Max 9 to fly again but said it would halt Boeing’s planned ramp up in production, which the manufacturer had aimed to get up to about 50 planes a month in 2025 or 2026.
The Boeing 737 Max is the company’s best-selling plane. A delay to production increases could hamper Boeing’s financial targets and affect suppliers that are preparing for higher output, as well as customers counting on new planes to cater to post-Covid travel demand.
Calhoun has visited company and supplier production lines as well as lawmakers on Capitol Hill in the weeks since the incident, vowing transparency and to fix any shortfalls in its manufacturing. The company had the first of several production stand-downs last week to discuss with workers manufacturing problems and other potential improvements to Boeing’s processes.
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